Birmingham, Alabama native to help lure foreign investors

A Birmingham native will play a major role in a new federal effort to stimulate new business investment in the United States by both international and domestic companies.

Barry Johnson, who graduated from The Altamont School and whose parents live in Hoover, is the executive director of SelectUSA, a U.S. Department of Commerce initiative created by President Obama last year to help recruit foreign investment and to support the expansion of domestic and foreign-based companies.

As executive director, Johnson manages a program that works with state and local governments and business leaders to encourage job-creating business investments. SelectUSA maintains a state-appointed liaison in each of the 50 states, five U.S. territories and the District of Columbia.

On Wednesday, President Obama during an appearance at Master Lock Co. in Milwaukee announced that later this year the Commerce Department will host its first SelectUSA Investment Summit, bringing companies from around the world to meet with governors, mayors, federal agencies, state and local economic development organizations to discuss the benefits of investing in the U.S.

Johnson, in an interview, said SelectUSA aims to be a single-point of entry to the federal government for companies based in the United States and overseas looking to expand.

Johnson said Alabama is a perfect example of the important role foreign investment can play in stimulating economic growth. U.S. subsidiaries of foreign firms now employ 78,400 workers in Alabama, including 45,200 factory jobs, according to the Department of Commerce. That's about 5 percent of the state's private-sector work force.

Johnson previously was senior adviser and director of strategic initiatives at the Commerce Department's Economic Development Administration. Before that, Johnson spent more than 20 years as an entrepreneur and corporate executive working with such firms as Walt Disney Co. and Sony Music Corp. He was a former founding president of MSBET, a joint venture between Microsoft Corp. and BET Holdings. Johnson earned a master's degree in business administration from Harvard Business School and bachelor's degrees in economics and political science from Yale University.

Herschell Hamilton, president of Bloc Global in Birmingham and friend since childhood said Johnson is up to the task as leader of the SelectUSA program.

"This prestigious post for one of Birmingham's native sons now puts him on the world stage to support the president's global initiative to create jobs by getting international companies and investors to grow their businesses and invest here in the U.S,." he said.

Greg Powell, chairman of the NFIB Leadership Council for the state of Alabama, said he is skeptical of the timing of the SelectUSA Investment Summit. Powell, CEO of Fi-Plan Partners, a Hoover financial planning firm, said it raises "red flags as to whether this is an attempt to look pro-business in an election year."

"For the past four years, small businesses have been asking the government to reevaluate their regulations and taxes that actually hinder small businesses from expanding or creating new jobs," Powell said. "How ironic that we now start hearing about business initiatives as we go into a presidential election."

Johnson said SelectUSA aims to entice not only international companies to invest in the United States but also assist domestic companies looking to expand here.